"From bullets whizzing through the front windows of an Italian restaurant to a tall, mysterious blond who wants to be tied up and spanked — it's life behind the bar, a carnival recorded on cocktail napkins …. "

AN IRISH SHOT (and two other notes)

Last week’s video showed how to use a traditional “four count” to pour an exact shot. Apparently in Ireland, they have their own count. This just in from our good friend and fellow barman on the emerald island, Diarmaid D:

(original humor by Diarmaid)

1 (gulp) – 2 (gulp) – 3 (gulp) – 4 = an Irish shot.

(And of course, it’s not my counting method . . . Johnny La La taught me how to free-pour at The Lark Tavern many years ago. I’m sure he would have approved of this variation.)

Diarmaid (pronouced “deer-mid” — a traditional Irish name) was a member of Johnny D’s staff back in the mid-nineties. He and his lovely lady, Sarah, will be flying in from Ireland to Boston for a return visit next week. We can’t wait to tip a pint of Guinness with him. It’s been too long. (If you’re ever anywhere near Donegal, Ireland be sure to visit Doms Pier 1, where Diarmaid pours the best pint around.)

Cleveland neighborhoods . . .

The spotlight was on Cleveland last week, and not in a good way. Headline after headline told of the young girls who had been kidnapped and held hostage.

People who lived nearby were horrified and shocked that this had happened in their community.

“It’s really hard to imagine it happening here,” Ruben Hernandez told me. Ruben is our Heartland Payroll supervisor, and he grew up in that neighborhood. He still lives only a few block away.

“This is so unlike the neighborhood,” Ruben said. “It’s really a close community where people look out for one another.”

Ruben recalled a childhood incident where there had been a fire at one of his neighbors homes . . . aside from the damage to the building, the family’s Christmas presents had been destroyed.

(Ruben celebrating his 25 birthday last October)

“I remember being nine or ten years old,” Ruben said, “And me and my friends were all out shoveling sidewalks and driveways to help raise money for that family. Everyone chipped in, and those kids had new presents in time for Christmas.”

Ruben also told the story about when his father had a stroke, and his mom was trying to care for him after he left the hospital.

Apparently one family after another would bring food over to the Hernandez home. Someone’s family would bring the prepared meals one morning, and then the next day someone else would send something more.

“All the families were leaving meals for us,” Ruben recalled, “Usually it was the daughters that brought it to our house.”

“They would drop it off on the porch in the morning” he said, “And it was like it never crossed their minds that they were doing something unusual, or special. It was just the way everyone in the neighborhood took care of each another.”

We have to send out a special congratulations to Ruben — he’s about to start his own family. He and the beautiful Gabby (pictured on the left) are expecting their first child this coming November. (So you finally got around to it, Ruben . . . good for you.)

“Chombo’s” great idea . . .

After the Boston Marathon bombings, the One Fund Boston was set up to accept donations for the victims.

Our weekend bar back, Craig “Chombo” McK, came up with a unique way to gather more support for the fund.

Craig is a trucker by day (delivers wine for an area distributor), and he’s also a musician, performing frequently on the Boston scene with Julian Hammond, Dave Hodgman, and Tim Mitchell.

Their band, the Fantastic Liars, had a gig scheduled at the popular night spot, Radio . . . and Craig thought — “Hey, why not play music, have fun, and raise money at the same time?”

By the time other people had picked up on the idea, something like twenty bands had joined Craig for that night’s performance, and they raised over $7000. (Click below to hear Fantastic Liars — that’s Craig on the right, on saxophone.)

We may be adding more specific details when I talk with Craig again over the weekend . . . but way to go, Chombo!

(Original pencil drawing by Nate Boucher.)

(Here’s an original tongue-in-cheek drawing of Craig — done on a cocktail napkin of course. This was drawn at the bar by former Johnny D’s staffer Nate Boucher, who was also an art student. Craig’s reaction to the drawing — “Hey guys, it’s not a caricature, it’s a portrait, . . . and a fine one at that!”)

3 Responses to AN IRISH SHOT (and two other notes)

Nice to read some positive factual stories on how nice and the way people should always act in spite of the sometimes horrible and greedy world we live in everyday. Knowing and having good friends is irreplaceable and builds optimism to keep on keeping on.

Starbucks8294: Ruben’s observation stuck me the most, Starbucks … when he said that those neighbors never thought twice about helping out, and didn’t even think that they were doing anything out of the ordinary. It was just what they did when someone in their community needed a hand.

JT: I’ve seen YOU take the high road, JT, even when all the bullshit was flying. Always been impressed by that. See you at the Jam on Sunday.

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ABOUT THIS BLOG

Everyone has done it – you’re in a bar, looking for a scrap of paper to write a woman's name and phone number on, or just want to make a note to yourself so you don’t forget something. You grab a cocktail napkin.

(In the TV series The West Wing, a political consultant decides that Jed Bartlet – played by Martin Sheen – should run for President. He takes a cocktail napkin and writes down the slogan, “Bartlet for America.”)

I work in bars. Over the years, I’ve accumulated enough of my own cocktail-napkin notes to fill six liquor bottle boxes.

Here are the people and stories that wound up in those notes -- real-life characters like Jackie Rabbit and Maude the Broad, the narcotics cops Paul and Sonny, mafia guys, some shameless tramps and one suicidal young man. You'll meet an old-time boxer who wants to take me into the gym to teach me his trade, and a woman who thinks God is on the stool next to her, urging her to have one more whiskey and ginger. It's life behind the taps.